28 November 2011

Venison Hand Pies with Kale, Apples, and Onions


 

Today's lunch in the grey cottage was a delicious and lazy affair...  grab a hand pie and knosh while puttering away at this and that.




Okay, if you didn't know the title on this post, wouldn't you think this was just another fruit turnover pastry ? Silly you! This is how things started today.

25 November 2011

Risotto with Wild Mushrooms and White Truffle Oil





Paula Wolfert and I go back a ways ... I first heard of her when I began using clay-pot techniques and pottery to make fish stews and tagine recipes a couple years back. I bought her cookbook Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking and never looked back. She has good solid instincts on writing recipes so that they are clear and sequenced nicely. I have read somewhere that that is one of her claims to fame ... that, and her encyclopedic knowledge of the rustic cuisines of the Mediterranean cultures.


Two Words ...


Fresh Cranberries ...



One Pie ...



Brined Bird ...



Prepped Veg ...



Spicy Starters ...



Cold Drinks ...



Harvest Nuts ...



More Nuts ...




Making Gravy ...



Setting Table ...



Remembering Want ...



Carving Tom ...



Here Comes ...



Mashed Potatoes ...



Brussels Sprouts ...



Roasted Vegetables ...



Dressed Plate ...



Tearin' In ...



Happy Thanksgiving!


22 November 2011

There's No Place Like Home ... and Nothing Like Kasha Varnishkes!



I'm back! For someone who usually posts every couple days, being away from The Spice Garden has felt like going through withdrawal! I do love cooking and blogging, but life has just been crazy of late!

13 November 2011

Roasted Pepper Soup with Garlic Toasts


                                                       


This month Dom has challenged us to make a vegetarian soup that can be shared on the Belleau Kitchen's Random Recipe challenge and on Tinned Tomatoes'  No Croutons Required monthly challenge. Dom and Jacqui have chosen the perfect challenge for those of us entering 'soup season!

This is an easy challenge, if you have a copy of The Soup Bible. I picked this cookbook up this summer when our local Borders was having its closing sales ... sniff, sniff. I hated to see a bookstore closing, but was eager for the deals ... don't judge me. I felt bad picking through the cook book aisle, kind of like a gleaner at the end of harvest time. Many other images come to mind too , but we'll leave it at that.



11 November 2011

Walnut Cupcakes with Maple Meringue Frosting



It's been a busy week at the grey cottage. Our church holiday fair is fast approaching and I have been a busy little seamstress. The big project has been a baby quilt that will go up for auction.



07 November 2011

Carrots in Cream



A food processor makes really short work of the slicing of  'coins' ...

When my son Eric was a fourth grader, his teachers taught a unit on the westward movement - Manifest Destiny and all that. Of course, the kids looked at it as a great adventure because they learned about the covered wagons, homesteaders, making soddies, and the beginnings of the clash between cultures that happened out on the North American prairies. It was pretty sugar-coated for their young minds and sensibilities - the culminating event was a dinner that the teachers had with the children at which basic farm foods - root vegetables, cabbages, chickens, eggs, cornmeal, buffalo were used to make a meal for the kids. My job was to come up with a vegetable dish using carrots ... so I dug around in the 'Little House ' books and found references to Ma's meals for Laura,her sisters and Pa Ingalls. Later, I found that someone had published a cookbook of recipes from the Little House on the Prairie books ...



04 November 2011

Amanda Hesser's Pumpkin Soup with Leeks and White Wine



Amanda Hesser ... trained chef, New York Times food editor/writer noted for her books, The Cook and the Gardener, Cooking For Mr. Latte - A Food Lover's Courtship with Recipes and The Essential New York Times Cookbook, Gourmet Live's #22 of 50 Woman Game-Changers, one half of the team that has given us Food52 - a comprehensive food website/blog that gives readers everything from video 'how-tos' to cooking contests, to recipe archives, to articles on issues within the food industry to spotlight interviews with foodie members of the website, to, to, to ...

03 November 2011

Braised Red Cabbage with Apples




I've begun a new sewing project so my time today was spent on my hands and knees, laying out four inch quilt squares ... pushing Penny, the inquisitive kitty and Mimi, the naughty Corgi away from the quilt lay-out and talking them to calm lumps of fur beside me on the floor while I figured out the best color scheme. It's a miracle that they behaved so well  AND that I managed to get the rows of quilt squares laid out and then picked up and arranged in a small piles that are ready to sewn together tomorrow ... much easier than keeping them away from that Challah dough last week!

 Regardless ... I needed an easy dinner strategy after all that 'up-and-down', place and replace tedium, check and double check to make sure pattern is correctly laid out ...

01 November 2011

Chicken Cacciatore ...



This dish goes way back with me ... it was one of the first dishes that I made as a young newlywed ... candle light, wine, and this meal for the man I love. I still think about that first time I made it for Hiel (who is really Silent Bob!) every time I make it ... and it still always brings back a wonderful memory of our candle lit dinner at the dining room table in the very first house that we bought right after we were married in 1980. It's amazing what a little chicken can do, huh?